"Back," I said, already moving.
Reika threw a strip of Cursed Script at the slope, and the regolith obeyed the word Hold as if it had been raised with manners. Seraphina stepped past her, put both palms to the ground, and drew cold out of her qi into a lattice that mimicked frost. There's no water here, but ice isn't only water; it's a way of telling a thing to stop moving. The slide slowed. Rachel's hand flashed, and Purelight slid under the crust and made the broken part want to be whole. The crane finished its swing. Erebus's porters set the stone as though they'd been doing it since the Moon cooled.
"Thank you," I said to all three of them.
We anchored the crystal and let the first ring hum. The Redeemers planted their lanterns around the overhang and made one clean, cold room—a place where fear gets no echo. You could feel the shift even through a suit, like a breath you hadn't known you were holding finally being let go.
We moved.
